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Sasha LaPointe

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Sasha taqʷšəblu (taqwšəblu) LaPointe is an indigenous author from the Pacific Northwest of the United States. She is most known for her 2022 memoir Red Paint: The Ancestral Autobiography of a Coast Salish Punk,[1] and book of poetry, Rose Quartz.[2]

Personal Life and Education

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LaPointe has a double MFA in creative nonfiction and poetry.[3] She graduated from the Institute of American Indian Arts in 2018.[4] LaPointe is an enrolled member in the Nooksack Tribe.[5] Her great grandmother Vi taqʷšəblu Hilbert was a revered elder of the Upper Skagit Tribe,[6] who has served as an inspiration for her writing.[7] She was a member of the punk rock band Medusa Stare and was once an instructor at Evergreen State College in Olympia.[3]

Career

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LaPointe's 2022 memoir Red Paint: The Ancestral Autobiography of a Coast Salish Punk[1] was published to significant critical acclaim in 2022. It received the 2023 Pacific Northwest Book Award[8]and the Washington State Book Award for Creative Nonfiction/Memoir.[9] It was listed one of BookPage's Best Nonfiction Books of the Year.[10] The memoir details her experience as a person of Coast Salish heritage, following her childhood and life as a young punk rocker, as well her family legacy.[11] An article for NPR explored her motivation for becoming an author, writing "LaPointe is tired of the ways white people have decided language for native experiences".[12] The book was partially funded by Artist Trust GAP Grant, which she received in 2018.[13]

Her debut book of poetry Rose Quartz[2] was published to critical acclaim in 2023. The Library Journal called it, "beautifully rendered".[14] This poetry collection centers on themes of trauma, healing, and the indigenous heritage of the Pacific Northwest.[15] A review in Autostraddle reads, "The beginning of the collection drops us into Lapointe’s reality: an Indigenous woman living in the Pacific Northwest, proclaiming and explaining the world in which her relatives are so inherently linked to the mud and clay around her; 'the red paint / is for healing."[16]

Her 2024 book of essays Thunder Song was featured as one of Nylon's March 2024 Must Read New Releases.[17] Electric Lit also listed the book as one of the 42 Queer Books You Need to Read in 2024.[18] Kirkus Reviews described the work as exploring "the importance of sustaining ancestral relations, the difficulty of balancing the imperatives of opposed cultural worlds, the toxic biases of the mainstream media, and the injustices and lethal prejudices of the severely flawed American health care system".[19]

Bibliography

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Books

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  • LaPointe, Sasha (2022). Red Paint: The Ancestral Autobiography of a Coast Salish Punk. Counterpoint. ISBN 978-1640094147.
  • LaPointe, Sasha (2023). Rose Quartz. Milkweed Editions. ISBN 978-1571315434.
  • Thunder Song (2024)[20]

Poetry

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  • What he should have said (2018)[21]
  • Blue (2019)[7]
  • Monarch (2022)[22]

Her work has been featured extensively in the AS/Us journal.[23] One of her poems was also featured in the Spring 2022 volume of the Yellow Medicine Review.[24]

Essays

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  • The Saturday Rumpus Essay: Fairy Tales, Trauma, Writing into Dissociation (2016)[25]
  • ‘Bring Me The Girl’: Why ‘The Revenant’ was Hard for My Friends and Me (2016)[26]
  • As An Indigenous Woman, I Always Hate Thanksgiving. This Year I'm Terrified Of It (2020)[27]

References

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  1. ^ LaPointe, Sasha (2022). Red Paint: The Ancestral Autobiography of a Coast Salish Punk. Counterpoint. ISBN 978-1640094147.
  2. ^ a b LaPointe, Sasha (2023). Rose Quartz. Milkweed Editions. ISBN 978-1571315434.
  3. ^ a b "Gets Real: Washington State Book Award winner shares her truth in "Red Paint"". KIRO 7 News Seattle. 2023-10-30. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
  4. ^ "Institute of American Indian Arts Graduates 73". ICT News. 2018-09-13. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
  5. ^ Gallup, Lauren (2023-09-27). "Washington State Book Award winners talk lineage, generational storytelling". Northwest Public Broadcasting. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
  6. ^ "Violet Hilbert". www.arts.gov. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
  7. ^ a b "BONUS: A Conversation with Sasha taqwšəblu LaPointe". The On Being Project. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
  8. ^ "2023 Awards". Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
  9. ^ "Winners and Finalists 2006 – 2023 – Washington Center for the Book". Retrieved 2024-03-07.
  10. ^ "Best Books of 2022: Nonfiction". BookPage | Discover your next great book!. 2022-11-14. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
  11. ^ Sailor, Craig (September 27, 2023). "She's Coast Salish and punk. Tacoma author's memoir garners praise, WA book award". The News Tribune. Retrieved March 7, 2023.
  12. ^ Denkmann, Libby; Fullwood, Brandi; Leibovitz, Sarah (2023-09-29). "Hear It Again: This Coast Salish punk wants you to call her anything other than 'survivor'". www.kuow.org. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
  13. ^ Werner-Jatzke, Chelsea (2019-04-25). "Artists on Art: Like a Hammer". SAMBlog. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
  14. ^ Hoffert, Barbara (April 1, 2023). "Rose Quartz". Library Journal.
  15. ^ "New memoir 'Red Paint' draws inspiration from punk rock and Indigenous ancestry". opb. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
  16. ^ Win, Em (2023-04-27). ""Rose Quartz" Review: Poems for the Wounds We Carry". Autostraddle. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
  17. ^ "March 2024's Must-Read Book Releases". Nylon. 2024-02-27. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
  18. ^ Lit, Intern Electric (2024-01-09). "42 Queer Books You Need to Read in 2024". Electric Literature. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
  19. ^ THUNDER SONG | Kirkus Reviews.
  20. ^ LaPointe, Sasha (2024). Thunder Song: Essays. Counterpoint Press. ISBN 9781640096356.
  21. ^ "New Poetry by Indigenous Women". Literary Hub. 2018-10-19. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
  22. ^ LaPointe, Sasha. "Monarch". Sierra. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
  23. ^ "Sasha LaPointe-Poetry". As Us. 2013-12-20. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
  24. ^ "Yellow Medicine Review: A Journal of Indigenous Literature, Art, and Thought". Yellow Medicine Review Store. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
  25. ^ LaPointe, Sasha (2016-10-08). "The Saturday Rumpus Essay: Fairy Tales, Trauma, Writing into Dissociation". The Rumpus. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
  26. ^ leeanne (2016-02-03). "'Bring Me The Girl': Why 'The Revenant' was Hard for My Friends and Me". Indian Country Today Media Network.com. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
  27. ^ "As An Indigenous Woman, I Always Hate Thanksgiving. This Year I'm Terrified Of It". HuffPost. 2020-11-26. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
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